Jo and I are watching the Home Run Derby on the tube and enjoying the nice cool breeze. One of the nicer days in the past week or so. The puppies are lying by the patio doors, just enjoying the cool. Now on to my first July update. I've been a bit lax about updating lately. No excuses really, just haven't felt up to it. So let's see what's been happening in July.
Completed
1. Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell (Hilary Tamar #1). A new author for me.
"Thus Was Adonis Murdered is the first book in the Hilary Tamar mystery series by English author Sarah Caudwell. Caudwell lived from 1939 - 2000 and wrote 4 books in this series.
Hilary Tamar is a legal scholar who visits with former students at their legal practice at Middle Temple Lane in London. Hilary has taken up temporary residence at a friend's home while he has gone off to America on a sabbatical. Hilary has agreed to look after the cats.
The story involves a murder in Venice of a young man whose fancy has been taken by Judith Larwood, another member of the practice. Judith specializes in tax law. The story for the most part is told in the form of letters written by Judith to Selena, another of the members of the practice. Selena reads the letters to Hilary, Cantrip and Ragwort. At the same time we hear from Timothy, who has been sent down to Venice to sort out the finances of a young Englishman who has inherited a home in Venice.
Cantrip, who has been assigned to read the news articles of a London paper to ensure they print nothing libelous becomes aware of the murder in Venice and of Judith's becoming the prime suspect. So there is your story.
We move back and forth in time somewhat; reading Judith's letters and then getting current updates from both Cantrip's news sources and from Timothy who begins to investigate, somewhat and try to help Judith. As the story progresses and the members of Judith's travel group return to London, Hilary and the others begin their own investigation in London.
It's a neat premise and the characters are all quite interesting, making a humorous, intelligent group. I find many similarities to other writers, the humor of P.G. Wodehouse, the legality of John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey and also even Martha Grimes' Inspector Jury, with his constant assistance of a group of friends.
It's a slow to medium paced story and well-written, if somewhat formal (but Hilary is a scholar after all). The mystery is kind of secondary to the story itself but it 2. is satisfactorily and surprisingly solved in the end. I liked it very much and found the whole concept quite different and unique. I'm looking forward to reading the 2nd book. (3.5 stars)"
"Ottoline and the Purple Fox by Chris Riddell is the 4th and final book in his entertaining YA series featuring Ottoline. In this final story, Ottoline and her friend Mr. Munroe, a troll from Norway, plan a party for their friends. As well, they meet a girl and her friend, who oddly look amazingly similar to Ottoline and Mr. Munroe. Of course, they also meet the titled Purple Fox who takes them on an adventure.
As always, the story is fun, the characters interesting and the drawings excellent. I won't get into the plot anymore but I did like how you could jump around each time the Purple Fox told them a new story on his tour of the city. As well, the poems by the mystery poet are all excellent. And the Fancy Dress Fortune Teller will bring back memories to many people. In the hard cover version, at least, in a slot in the back is the described Fortune Teller. Neat.
All in all, it was a fun way to end the series. Somewhat sad to see it ended. I'll have to finish the Goth Girl books next. (4.0 stars)"
"Every year or two I go to my bookshelf and gather the next in line of the Kinsey Milhone mystery series by author, Sue Grafton. When I took U is for Undertow off the shelf a couple of months ago, I realized with dismay that I'll soon be finished with this excellent series. Enjoyment of Kinsey's cases vs the sadness that I won't have that joy much longer. Anyway.....
I have to say that this story might have been one of Kinsey's more convoluted cases. I'm surprised she even took it on, truth be told. Michael Sutton shows up at her office one day. He was sent to Kinsey by her old cop friend and ex-lover, Cheney. Michael read an article about a little girl who'd gone missing 21 years ago and had a flashback to an incident when he was 6 and remembers seeing two 'pirates' digging in the woods and burying a bundle. Michael is sure that it was the kidnapped girl.
For some reason, Kinsey agrees to look into the case for one day. She eventually persuades Cheney to dig up a spot identified by Michael and instead of a body, they find the body of a dead dog. So is the case finished? Nope, Kinsey now is interested and continues to look into the case. At the same time we delve into the past of a number of characters who may or may not be related to or somehow involved in the kidnapping. There was another kidnapping 21 years ago and this girl, Rain, was returned unharmed after a $15,000 ransom was paid. Was that related?
Also, Kinsey is trying to deal with her recently discovered family relations. There is a reunion coming up and Kinsey is invited. She also delves into this family dynamic, one she is not happy about.
It's a slow burn, this story and I found it easy to put down at first. But the more I got into it, the more interested I became and I found the whole story intriguing and interesting. I always like Kinsey. She's blunt and down-to-earth and when she gets the bit between her teeth, she's determined to get to the end of the situation. I enjoyed the story, enjoyed discovering more about the characters involved in the case, some likable some not. The ending was satisfying even if it all came to a head very quickly. Not enough of her neighbor Henry in this story, but that's ok. It was as always, entertaining and satisfying. (4.0 stars)"
Currently Reading
"Saturday 09:11 A blast rocks a London hospital and thousands are dead or injured… 10:09 Joe Ledger arrives on scene to investigate. The horror is unlike anything he has ever seen. Compelled by grief and rage, Joe rejoins the DMS and within hours is attacked by a hit-team of assassins and sent on a suicide mission into a viral hot zone during an Ebola outbreak. Soon Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences begin tearing down the veils of deception to uncover a vast and powerful secret society using weaponized versions of the Ten Plagues of Egypt to destabilize world economies and profit from the resulting chaos. Millions will die unless Joe Ledger meets the this powerful new enemy on their own terms as he fights terror with terror."
"British agent Quiller must extricate a Miami-stationed agent from a twisted enemy conspiracy that involves incredible mind-control technology and may reach as far as the President of the United States."
New Books
"Unlike many whodunits popular today, this one is free from any contrivances and very believable..."As the suspects are introduced and woven into the story, Miss Potts brings them all to life. They are real people-a true cross-section ranging from the warm and outgoing to the arrogant and confused, diffident and dull-just like the people everyone knows. The only abnormal thing about the group is that one of these nice, normal persons is a murderer. "Not until the very last page is the reader aware of who really did stab THE ONLY GOOD SECRETARY ... entertaining, light, easy, and at times amusing reading, a rare combination to today's mysteries." Baltimore Sunday Sun ."
"Natalie Waite, daughter of a mediocre writer and a neurotic housewife, is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. In the midst of adolescence she senses a creeping darkness in her life, which will spread among nightmarish parties, poisonous college cliques and the manipulations of the intellectual men who surround her, as her identity gradually crumbles.
Inspired by the unsolved disappearance of a female college student near Shirley Jackson's home, Hangsaman is a story of lurking disquiet and haunting disorientation."
Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered itsM Crystal Palace—the world’s fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why.
And so the Department of Diachronic Operations—D.O.D.O. —gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial—and treacherous—nature of the human heart."
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled "HAP," he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio - a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio's former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic's assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.
Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?"
Robin decides that the agency can’t help with this—and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.
Robin and her business partner, Cormoran Strike, become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie’s true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits – and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways . . ."
Emoni wants to be a chef more than anything, but she knows it's pointless to pursue the impossible. There are rules she has to play by. And yet, once she starts cooking, and gets that fire on high, she sees that her drive to feed will feed her soul and dreams too. And anything is possible."
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